Rainbow Bridge, Fort Morgan, Colorado

Summer Plans

I am very excited for this summer!! My first year of college here at Concordia has been awesome, and I have had some great experiences, but I am ready for a summer break. This summer, I am going to go back home to Fort Morgan, Colorado to work with the school district. I will be painting classrooms and mowing lawns to earn some extra money for school next year. I will also be playing "A" Legion baseball, and I am very excited for that. I am very excited to see everyone, especially my family and my dog. I am excited to see old friends and I am excited to start working again. This summer is going to be great!

Pflug Pfamily Name

My name is Brandon Michael Pflug, and all of my life my name has been butchered. In school, over the phone, and at athletic events, "Pflug" is always mispronounced. I know that Pflug is not a very common name, but I always thought that there were a few others in the United States, and certainly across the globe. I typed in "Pflug" and this is what I found:

The top countries where Pflugs can be found are Germany, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg, United States, Switzerland, Hungary, Norway, and France. I then clicked on the United States just for fun, and I found that the majority of the Pflugs on the continent of North America can be found in Ontario, Canada. In the states, Pflugs can be found in states such as Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Utah, New York, Louisiana, and Florida. There were a very small population of Pflugs in Nebraska.

I then went over to Germany and found the majority of the Pflugs in this world. Apparently, Pflugs can be found in places such as Berlin, Brandenburg, Sachsen, and Hessen. I found this website very interesting, and I am going to recommend it to my father. It was very interesting to see how many Pflugs are currently populating this world.

People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China is a communist country that has many strict regulations and laws concerning freedom of the press, and filtered access to the internet. Chinese citizens cannot enjoy all of the privileges of freedom in newspapers and magazines, and internet sites such as YouTube are filtered. I believe that Americans may take these rights for granted, but after studying and looking into these regulations, I believe that the American society is very lucky to be able to read what we want, and watch what we want on television and the internet.

In the World Press Freedom Review, by The International Press Institute, and Barbara Trionfri, she says that the Chinese government even went so far as to censor the events of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She says, "Covering the events wasn't an easy job. The government imposed restrictions on the media to prevent reporting that could harm the golden image the government was trying to portray for the summer olympics. Even after the games ended, Chinese journalists were pressured to refrain from reporting about the impact of another major story of the year -- the global financial contagion. Journalists who defied the rules faced arrest, detention, harassment, and other forms of intimidation." I cannot imagine the United States with these restrictions. My favorite television shows would cease to exist. "Saturday Night Live" and Will Ferrell would have to stop imitating George Bush, and programs like "Colbert Report" would be taken off the air. It is hard to imagine the United States of America, or any country for that matter, having these restrictions. But the fact is, China experiences these conflicts every day.

In a YouTube video titled, "Free Hugs in China!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLImQtyjI10 the audience can really see some of these restrictions that the government has placed on residents of China. At the beginning, the "Free hugger" is not getting any business. No one seems comfortable coming up to him and giving him a hug. I think that this shows some of the restrictions by the government. No one has ever seen this before, and they are very reluctant to come up. Then, one by one, individuals come up and hug this man. By the end of the clip, everyone is hugging everyone. I think this is a very interesting clip, and it effectively demonstrates some of the restrictions being imposed on these Chinese people. This clip also shows some good geographical aspects of China as well. The video takes place on crowded streets in suburban areas. You can see many vendors and businesses on the street, as well as cars and bicyclists. I enjoyed this video from YouTube because it shows some of the geographical aspects of China, as well as some of the government restrictions that are being placed on these people. I gave it five stars.

Bizarre Foods

As Americans we have our preconcieved ideas about what is healthy to eat, what tastes good, and what is acceptable to eat. I agree with Professor Helmer that, "it is not taste that determines what we like to eat, but culture." This statement is very true. Our culture permits us to eat items such as hamburgers, spaghetti, salad, mexican food, desserts, and etc.., while other cultures may eat things such as insects, rodents, or even cow's blood. I personally would never eat any of those items unless it was a life or death situation, but that is how I have been brought up. Those other cultures probably look at our American cuisine and think the same things. No doubt, people around the world have extremely varied diets.

The strangest thing I have ever eaten was pate (diseased duck liver). My family and I were in Lyon France for a vacation in the summer of 2004. We had had the amazing opportunity to see the Northern coast, Paris, and Lyon in the two weeks we were there. On the second to last night, we went to a traditional Frech restaruant. The food was very good, but one of the entrees was pate. We were told that pate was a duck liver that had come from a diseased duck. The farmer would feed these ducks corn, which completely destroys their liver, but we were told that the ducks loved it and ate it up. Then, they would harvest the diseased liver and cook it in restaurants. We were served both cooked and uncooked pate. The cooked pate was not bad at all. I even enjoyed it. The uncooked pate was completely different. It tasted like a paste to me. It was about the same consistency as toothpaste, and did not have a good taste at all. But, being a good traveler, I ate it. Diseased duck liver is the strangest thing I have ever eaten, but I am very glad that I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to try it.

G-20
The Group of Twenty (G20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was established in 1999 to bring together systematically important industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy. The G-20 is an informal forum that promotes 0pen and constructive discussion between industrial and emerging-market countries on key issues related to global economic stability. Ultimately, the G-20 helps to support growth and development across the globe. The G-20 is made up of the countries, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The United Kingdom was honored to chair the G-20 in 2009. The G-20 faces many challenges that have appeard on the agenda this year. In 2009, it will be important to understand the roots of the international financial crisis and identify the lessons that we can learn to ensure that a crisis of this kind does not happen again. The G-20 will develop proposals that will restore global growth in the medium term, including the unwinding of emergency measures taken in response to the crisis. It is true that America is facing a very tough economic downturn, but it is comforting to know that groups such as the G-20 are working on this crisis.

The G-20 has had many great achievements since 1999. They have progressed a range of issues including agreement about policies for growth, reducing abuse of the financial system, dealing with financial crises, and combating terrorist financing. In 2004, G-20 countries committed to new higher standards of transparency and exchange of information of tax matters. This aims to combat abuses of the financial system and illicit activities including tax evasion. The G-20 also plays a significant role in matters concerned with the reform of the international financial architecture. It is very clear to me that G-20 is working very diligently on this financial crisis, and America will hopefully be clear of its recession soon.

I chose to portray this image of the Earth with South at the top of the map. This map is showing Antarctica at the very top, with Australia, in the center, and the many Indonesia Islands on the bottom of the map. I have never seen the Earth from this perspective, and I find it very interesting to look at the Earth from different view points. Looking at Australia from this perspective makes me realize that the continent is very separated from much of the landmass on the rest of the Earth. Indonesia lies just north of Australia, but besides the many small islands, Australia is very secluded from the rest of the world. This separation from other continents played a huge role in the development of Australain culture and customs. Looking at the Earth from different perspectives really opens your eyes to things that you may not have noticed when looking at maps in traditional spacial perspectives.

Slumdog Millionaire

This last week, I had the opportunity to see Slumdog Millionaire at the Rivoli Theater in Seward, Nebraska. I am very glad that I went to see it. Honestly, I was not expecting much, but I really enjoyed it, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to see a great movie. I really enjoyed the plot, the characters, and the setting of the movie, but it also made me realize how lucky I am to live in the United States. Seeing the slums of Mumbai really opened my eyes. I did not realize how poor the living conditions are in slums like that. I was appaled to see Jamal and Salim swimming in a local pool that was being used to wash clothes, the local port-a-poties, orphanage conditions, and the persecution of the Indian people. I cannot imagine orphans having their eyes burned out to recieve more money on the street, or paying to use a local bathroom that empties right onto a beach, or even having my integrity questioned because I lived in poverty. All of these events lead an audience to disbeleif, but by the end of the movie, it is all resolved when Jamal sucessfully wins "Who Wants to be a Millionarie?" Slumdog Millionaire is a fantastic movie, and I plan on adding it to my collection as soon as it comes out.